Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:13 pm on 3 December 2019.
I thank you for that answer, First Minister, and particularly highlighting the very good work taking place in Newport schools, which obviously I'm very familiar with.
I recently met with the British Lung Foundation, and the extent of breathing problems I think is now something like one in five people in the UK having breathing difficulties. Obviously, clean air is a key way of ameliorating and hopefully, in due course, eliminating those problems. We need to get to the stage where people are breathing clean air with healthy lungs.
One major way of getting to that situation, First Minister, is tackling road traffic, getting people and freight onto public transport as much as possible. I know there are many policies in train, and many practical ideas to help achieve that, but, obviously, it does need to be done as quickly as possible. I know that there have been many campaigns, and indeed court action, to try and achieve better-quality air in Wales and in the UK generally, and some local authorities have responded. I'm very pleased that Newport City Council are now bringing forward proposals, indeed, with public health partners. But there are lots of ideas around when you meet with groups, First Minister. We have our 20 mph speed limit work going on, all of the active travel improvements that we need to make, there are exclusion zones sometimes around schools, there are ideas about prohibiting car idling and making sure that buses and taxis—